Wow.
After years of listening to my teaching friends go on about the NCLB laws, this article fills in the blanks by revealing the power brokers behind the movement. I’m very disappointed to read about Obama’s involvement. After reading Ravitch’s argument, I can only believe that this reform movement was designed specifically to make sure that public education would fail (under the terms prescribed). These powerful alliances seek to manipulate and control information, disempower large segments of the population, and dismantle unions.
It’s troubling to see such ugliness in politics and politicians. As a country, we have so many important problems to address and we have these well-funded and well-connected people working hard to make things worse.
In 2008, I stood outside the gates at F&M listening to Obama promise that he would overturn NCLB. Ravitch paints a very different picture. Seeing where we are today, I tend to agree with her.
It’s disturbing and disheartening. What can I do about this? I’m not sure. Today, I will probably send this article to some of my friends and family members; perhaps sharing information will make me feel better.
How will this affect my views on teaching? It won’t. It just gives me more fuel to continue moving forward. We need good schools and good teachers. Our future students will create the policies that we will live by. Let’s teach them to keep asking questions.
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